My
bio on THE GOOK LOVER’s back cover shown here is accurate, but
there’s always a second act, isn’t there? For instance...
The open hearth where I worked in
the labor gang -- torn down.
The Clairton Citizen, a weekly I
co-founded and edited --eventually failed. Then the town imploded
when the mill closed.
Scripps-Howard’s Pittsburgh Press
-- a good newspaper, but it folded.
Western Pennsylvania National
Bank, where I opened 11 branches a year -- acquired.
Eastern Airlines with my corner
office at Rockefeller Center --flies no more.
Robert Kennedy’s presidential
primaries in Nebraska, South Dakota and California -- well, we all know that tragic ending.
ITT-Avis -- bought and sold as
often as a pristine used car.
Rolls-Royce Motors – sold to
German auto makers after I left to join a start- up luxury sports car company that lasted less than an
elephant’s gestation period.
Now you know why I feel like the guy who left Pompeii on August 23,
79 B.C.E. -- the night before Vesuvius blew its top.
I was good at my jobs, but it finally dawned on me that I’d be
better off working for myself. So my wife Jill and I spent two
decades in our own advertising-marketing-publishing firm with such
clients as American Express, Donald Trump and Harrah’s hotel
casinos. We published more than 3 million copies of slick,
four-color newspapers a year. Our agency succeeded because we
delivered what we promised.
The point: if you work hard, can tolerate change and have
risk-reward radar, a few well-calculated chances can pay off. And
with a bit of bloomin’ luck, it’s a heckuva lot more fun.
My
bio on THE GOOK LOVER’s back cover shown here is accurate, but
there’s always a second act, isn’t there? For instance...
The open hearth where I worked in
the labor gang -- torn down.
The Clairton Citizen, a weekly I
co-founded and edited --eventually failed. Then the town imploded
when the mill closed.
Scripps-Howard’s Pittsburgh Press
-- a good newspaper, but it folded.
Western Pennsylvania National
Bank, where I opened 11 branches a year -- acquired. 
Eastern Airlines with my corner
office at Rockefeller Center --flies no more. 
Robert Kennedy’s presidential
primaries in Nebraska, South Dakota and California -- well, we all know that tragic ending.
ITT-Avis -- bought and sold as
often as a pristine used car. 
Rolls-Royce Motors – sold to
German auto makers after I left to join a start- up luxury sports car company that lasted less than an
elephant’s gestation period.